Eight years later, Lelouch has become a brilliant Britannian general, fighting alongside Suzaku and his former enemies. Of course, he's totally forgotten his role as Zero, and believes Nunally to be dead. However, the Geass's hold on Lelouch is not absolute — his memories are merely buried, not totally erased, and a certain organization is watching him from the shadows, ready to reclaim their leader...

This fic contains examples of the following tropes, in addition to those already present in the source material:

All There in the Manual: The wikia has a lot of supporting information for the backstory of the characters and the countries.

Allohistorical Allusion: Anyone who knows the history of Napoleon Bonaparte should see the irony in the following C.C. statement.note "...until Josephine threatened to run off with some Hussar if he didn't stop."

Ancient Conspiracy: The Ordernote Not "Geass" Order, just "the Order" (so far). Though they're more or less after the same ends as in canon, they're far more elaborate about it, as in they've spent the last few thousand years hunting down Code Bearers, with only four to go before Ragnarok can be initiated.

Arch-Enemy: Lelouch and Suzaku. The sheer rage between them during their duel alone is enough to make a case. While Lelouch is somewhat conflicted about it, as some part of him does still consider Suzaku his friend, Suzaku has no such reservations, despising Lelouch for years for his role in Euphemia's death, all while having to pretend to be his best friend at the same time. Lelouch in turn resents him for his betrayal and suppression of his memories, yet still, he genuinely wants to salvage whatever's left of their friendship. Unfortunately for Lelouch, as far as Suzaku is concerned, there's nothing left to salvage. Several characters commenting on their relationship acknowledge that despite their formerly close friendship, Suzaku is truly Lelouch's greatest enemy. In fact, the narrative and the wiki seem to imply that they were destined to be enemies, regardless of whatever happened.

Ascended Extra: A great deal of minor characters have their roles expanded, compared to their appearances in Code Geass proper. For example, Senba, previously little more than a Living Prop with a voice in the show, is now something of a Parental Substitute and mentor for Tohdoh.

Dorothea Ernst's role has a major expansion, wherein the implications of her skin color are explored. She's also married to Bismarck, having given birth to their son, Roland, and had a close relationship with Bismarck's "protege" (for lack of a better word) during the eight year interim — Lelouch.

Awful Truth: Suzaku didn't kill his father for the sake of Japan — he killed him in order to protect Lelouch and Nunnally, whom his father planned to kill as one final act of defiance against Britannia. Lelouch doesn't learn the truth until fifteen years later, during their duel at the Battle of Pearl Harbor, where Suzaku claims that had he known what Lelouch would become and what his survival would cost him, he would've gladly let Genbu kill them. The revelation nearly drives Lelouch into a Heroic BSOD until Kallen manages to snap him out of it.

Lelouch in turns holds out on informing him the truth about Euphie's death. Primarily because there is no way to know how Suzaku would react to it after he descending into madness like he has now, and because his raging Guilt Complex makes him unwilling to do so, so in that way he can suffer for his role in her death.

Lelouch, to a lesser extent. While he is willing to soldier on as Zero once again, his massive guilt over the events of the Black Rebellion and the Devastation, along with his role in Euphemia's death, initially made him reluctant to return to the mask. Though unlike Suzaku, he isn't allowing it to drive him to the depths of insanity.

The Casanova: During the eight years in which his memories were suppressed, Lelouch became a bit of a playboy. Considering the Unwanted Harem he had in the series, it's highly doubtful the irony is lost on anyone.

Colour Coded Armies: Though a minor detail, the various factions (beside Zulfiqar so far) in Megiddo appear to follow a color system, with the uniforms and/or standard knightmares and ships of each faction holding a theme color. They are laid out as so:

Combat Breakdown: Lelouch's duel with Suzaku quickly escalated due to eight years of pent-up rage and resentment. Thanks to that, they literally tore each other apart, and the last leg of their battle was reduced to the use of their swords and shielding only.

Cue the Flying Pigs: Kallen is absolutely stunned when she sees Lelouch exercising. Seeing as this is Lelouch we're talking about, that is actually an understandable reaction.

Cultured Badass / Four-Star Badass: There are several of either, but Tohdoh especially stands out. Besides being a lover of classical literature, he's also well versed in the military arts (naturally) as well as the words and wisdom of several historic military commanders, such as Helmuth von Moltke, Carl von Clausewitz, George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

Dance Battler: Nena's fighting style in the Safir involves a lot of spinning and elaborate maneuvering with her whips.

Did You Just Talk Down To Cthulhu!?: A month or so after the Devastation, Milly and the rest of the Ashford Academy survivors are brought before Emperor Charles so that he can Geass away their memories of Lelouch and Nunnally. This is what happens when Milly was ordered to kneel: rather than cower before the Emperor like most would do, Milly, being too pissed over recent events to care, summarily calls Charles out over Japan's destruction and Britannia's callousness, as well as openly declare that she (in the same light as Lelouch before her) would destroy Britannia if she had the power to do so. Naturally, everyone expects Milly to die for this offense; instead, Charles laughs it off and praises her spirit, right before declaring her as the new Grand Duchess of New York (her grandfather's old title) and returning all holdings the Ashford family had lost over Marianne's death. That being said though, Charles still Geasses her and the other students.

Dirty Communists: Partially subverted. While the Chinese Federation was a tyrannical regime that held the worst aspects of the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China and North Korea (as well as Imperial Japan) under one roof, the CLA, with some exceptions, is largely presented as an army of heroic soldiers fighting to liberate their motherland from Britannia and the traitors who sold it out. And then there's Xingke and Tianzi, who are in some ways even more heroic than the main cast.

The Soviet Union itself has recently been added to the backstory as well. Apparently it attempted to conquer Europe at one point (acting as the story's more literal counterpart to World War II), but was beaten back by a German led contingent and eventually conquered.

The Dreaded: The Black Knights have garnered this reputation, having been the closest to ever liberating an area from Britannia. Their resurrection was enough to strike terror into much of the Britannian Empire, most of all with the realization that they have gotten even stronger, thanks to the Battle of Pearl Harbor.

Lelouch himself has this reputation, both as Zero and as the Black Prince of Britannia. While Zero speaks for itself, his reputation as the Black Prince is just as feared, both as a brilliant strategist on par with his brother Schneizel, and as an ace Knightmare pilot on par with the Knights of the Round.

Kallen is almost as infamous as Zero, famed as the Red Dragoness, arguably the best Knightmare pilot of the Black Knights.

Johann is this to Lelouch, due to being the only person besides Schneizel to beat him at chess. This is shown to be well founded during the Battle of Xiaopei, where Johann, after becoming the first person to actually turn one of Lelouch's miracles against him, nearly instigates Lelouch's first real defeat since the Black Rebellion.

Duel to the Death: Lelouch's battle with Suzaku was quickly heading this direction, and Lelouch, still reeling from the revelation of the true reason why Suzaku killed his father, would have lost and been killed had it not been for Kallen's timely intervention. Suzaku's declaration during their escape makes it quite clear that any subsequent battle between them will most certainly be this.

Elaborate Underground Base: Xiaopei has been turned into this by the CLA. And then there are the bases belonging to Zulfiqar and the Order.

Even Evil Has Standards: Some Britannian characters display signs of this. For example, Charles holds certain contempt for Britannia, which he considers an empty and meaningless nation; in fact, the only reason he retains the throne is because it benefits Ragnarok. Otherwise he would have given it up to Schneizel a long time ago.

Luciano, like the other Rounds, is greatly disgusted with Descartes and his Smug Snake attitude.

Calares is a Grade-A son of a bitch who practices all the things that make Britannia evil, but even he looks down upon the Eunuchs for their hedonism and their being traitors. In fact, he lampshades it noting while it's one thing for Britannia to subjugate other nations, it's another for the leaders to do the same to their own and then sell it out at the first opportunity.

It's for that reason that of all the Eunuchs, the one he despises the most is Zhao Hao, of whom he is well aware is a pedophile. One who attempted to force himself on a young Tianzi only to be stopped by Li Xingke, who cut off his arms in retaliation. When Zhao Hao requests Johann to capture both Tianzi and Xingke, his intentions all too clear, it takes Johann, the Knight of Two, to restrain Calares from shooting the man right where he stands. Calares's respect for Johann, who he previously resented for taking command of the efforts against the CLA away from him, also goes up when Johann ostensibly refuses and takes Zhao Hao down a peg in the process.

Everyone Can See It: While it's subtle, it seems everyone is aware that Kallen and Lelouch (Zero or otherwise) have legitimate feelings for each other, feelings that they are either unaware of or unwilling to act on.

Expy: Played with. While Rommel remains the same personality wise, he seems to be a lookalike of Ali al Saachez.

Seems to be a thing with some of the OCs. Zhukov and his son look like Sergei and Andrei Smirnov, Yamamoto sounds like Gendo Ikari, and Nagumo, Yamaguchi and Kondo strike one as being based on Aokiji, Kizaru and Akainu. Outside of Yamamoto, they even share the same first names as their respective bases.

Obviously, Knights of the Round Johann Ernst, Michael Raleigh, Nena Gurlukovich and Descartes Castin are each based on certain 00 characters.

Not exactly a character expy, but the new Black Knight uniforms are essentially black and silver clones of the A-Laws uniform, with commissar caps and assorted rank/unit insignia thrown in to make them even more Badass. Their knightmare pilot suits are also based on the A-Laws' normal suit (pilot suit), but are black instead of green.

In-universe example: Lelouch's new uniform as Zero is a black and gold rendition of Bismarck's custom Knight of One suit, only with the Zero mask and cloak added for good measure.

The EU and Chinese Federation pilot suits are now respectively based on the Orb and ZAFT normal suits from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. Britannia still retains their original designs.

CLA uniforms are now expies of ZAFT wear, only with the following changes. The standard uniforms are colored dark red, those worn by Xingke's followers (the Tianshou Team) are gold and Xingke himself wears purple (which is the uniform color of the CLA's upper brass in general). Beyond that, the ZAFT insignia are also replaced with the Chinese Sun (the emblem on the Chinese Federation flag).

The author has commented that he uses expies (at least in terms of appearance) because his readers are more likely to recognize/visualize them than completely original characters.

Fallen Hero: Suzaku, something both he and Lelouch (once he regains his memories) are perfectly aware of. And much to Lelouch's despair, Suzaku doesn't care about how far he's fallen, not as long he can avenge Euphie's death.

Fighting Your Friend: How Lelouch sees fighting Suzaku, a sentiment that is not returned. Lelouch tries not to let it hamper his performance in their duel, but once Suzaku reveals the real reason why he killed his father, he loses almost all will to continue the fight, forcing to Kallen to intervene. Suzaku's declaration during their escape, proclaiming that whether it will take another eight years or even an eternity, he will kill Lelouch, only causes his former friend to cry for the loss of their friendship.

Freudian Excuse: Rikichi has a surprisingly compelling one. His parents had to work hard to be recognized as Honorary Britannians (read they had to practically debase themselves) and even when they succeeded they were still stepped on; they couldn't even report a robbery of their home simply because they knew the police wouldn't give a damn. The Devastation didn't exactly help matters either.

General Failure: You may even feel pity for Odysseus, especially when you know that he's completely aware of how incompetent a leader he is.

Good Scars, Evil Scars: Lelouch now has a scar running down his left eye, which had been inflicted at one point by Suzaku to keep his Geass from reawakening.

Glory Hound: Calares' motivation toward defeating Xingke and the CLA, such that he even ignores orders from Johann, the Knight of Two, in order to carry out his own attack. Bites him in the ass when it's revealed Johann purposely fashioned his orders to incite Calares into going off on his own, all so that Johann could use his charge as a probing attack.

Of course, Calares is a somewhat sympathetic case. He's not after glory for (just) itself so much as a quick victory in China, both to secure Britannia's hold there and so that the brass back home give him a newer, more bearable assignment in a better part of the world. Chapter 19 even highlights (i.e. starts with) how much Calares hates being the Governor-General of Area 22.

As with his real life base, James MacArthur is as much an invoker of this trope as his boss. Calares even muses having MacArthur taken out to keep him from taking sole credit over Xiaopei (before the battle began of course).

Guilt Complex: Lelouch, even more so than in canon. He blames himself for things that are in no way his fault, such as the Devastation and his indirect hand in Suzaku's descent into insanity — including the death of Suzaku's father, who Suzaku killed to protect Nunnally and him. Only Kallen and C.C. are capable of snapping him out of his funk.

He Who Fights Monsters: Both Bismarck and Lelouch warn Suzaku against becoming this. Unfortunately for everyone, it doesn't take, since, by that point, Suzaku has gone completely insane and is too consumed with rage to care.

Hypocrite: Suzaku, something he willingly admits after Lelouch and the ghost(?) of his father call him out on his actions.

I'll Kill You!: Suzaku shouts this at Lelouch during their duel. With eight years of pent up rage and hatred between them, Lelouch quickly retorts that he won't kill him — not if he kills Suzaku first.

In-Series Nickname: Though they still have genitalia, the High Eunuchs are (mockingly) regarded by their namesake because they elected a then extremely young Tianzi to the Chinese Federal Chairmanship to serve as their puppet leader, causing the regular populace to compare them to the villainous Eunuchs of the Han Dynasty. This naturally resulted in Disproportionate Retribution, namely in the form of clampdowns by the Federation's Secret Police.

It Is Beyond Saving: Lelouch's attitude toward the current world, though mostly centered around Britannia.

It's All My Fault: Lelouch blames himself for Suzaku's descent into insanity, recognizing that the Suzaku he befriended died with Genbu, in order to protect him and Nunnally. Kallen quickly snaps him out of it. He also shoulders the guilt of what happened to Japan because of the Black Rebellion (namely, the Devastation), but he doesn't allow it to weigh on him too much, primarily because there was no way he could've known that would happen or that it was even possible.

It's Personal: After everything that has happened between them, including the last eight years of living a lie, both Lelouch (reluctantly) and Suzaku recognize that their friendship is unsalvageable — that in the end, their conflict only ends when one of them is dead.

It's for this explicit reason why Tohdoh decides to not interfere in the battle between Lelouch and Suzaku. While he may have been Suzaku's master, Lelouch had been his best friend, and the kind of shit Suzaku pulled on Lelouch, including betraying him to the Emperor, allowing said Emperor to suppress memories to make him serve the very empire he despised, and then playing the role of his best friend for the next eight years knowing full well what he did to him, is enough for Tohdoh to admit that Lelouch has a much bigger bone to pick with Suzaku than he does.

Knights Templar: The (Geass) Order now has shades of it, down to their preference toward white and their having a red cross as their insignia.

Lampshade Hanging: C.C. says that it would be out of her character if she didn't talk sarcastically.

La Résistance: Both the Black Knights and the Ashford Underground. The latter is more akin to the trope's namesake.

Laughing Mad: Suzaku gives an absolutely chilling laugh that stuns Lelouch when he realizes that Lelouch hasn't figured out the real reason why Genbu Kururugi was killed by his son. By that point, both the readers and Lelouch realize that Suzaku has gone absolutely insane.

Love Makes You Crazy: Suzaku's descent into insanity can largely be blamed on Euphie's death. He later declares that he while he may no longer be worthy of being Euphemia's chosen knight, he will fulfill his last duty as her knight in her name — killing Lelouch, her killer. This desire consumes him to the point of obsession, and he finally loses it during his duel with Lelouch at Pearl Harbor.

Mata Hari: Milly and Shirley. The former is a young Grand Duchess who uses her eccentric charm on other elites while leading the Ashford Underground as she did Ashford Academy's student body. The latter has since become a Hollywood socialite with an aspiring career in acting, modeling and singing, through which she branches out to all sections of Britannian society, including the areas that involve military and political secrets.

Mercy Kill: Many of the characters state that if Lelouch does still care about Suzaku, this is the action he should take regarding his former best friend. Lelouch and Todoh also acknowledge this, but feel that if it's possible, they will try to save Suzaku from himself.

Mugging the Monsters: This is what happens when a bunch of Chinese secret policemen attempt to rustle up a pair of harmless looking old men who turn out to be Setsuna and his fellow shinobi Yukihiro Sanada.

Noodle Incident: Due to the fact the entire Old World seems to be at war, lots of battles happen offscreen; the Britannians seemed to have suffered a heavy blow at the Rhineland, for example.

No One Gets Left Behind: The Britannians in the Black Knights show what happens when people don't play this trope straight.

Not only the military, but also the entire Ashford Academy student body, including Milly, Rivalz and Shirley.

No Swastikas: Averted. The insignia of the Black Knights' Security Corps is a silver manji.

Oh, Crap: Lelouch's reaction upon seeing Johann in China, since the latter is a Worthy Opponent (the only other person besides Schneizel to beat Lelouch in chess) and Lelouch wasn't expecting one that time around.

Britannia when the Black Knights announced their return.

The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Master's Coucil of the (Geass) Order. They even communicate in meetings as SEELE styled monoliths (only colored white instead of black), which are each marked with a Roman numeral (to denote position) and a red cross (which serves as the Order's emblem).

The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Suzaku is obsessed with avenging Euphie's death, vowing to Lelouch that no matter how long it takes, he will be the one to end him. Lelouch returns to the sentiment to a far lesser extent, recognizing that it's somewhat his fault that Suzaku has fallen as far as he has and that he may have to kill him — and not just because Suzaku is serving Britannia.

Overpressure? What Overpressure?: Averted. Lelouch orders the Ikaruga to fire Raikou missiles into the ocean, thus causing an underwater explosion that promptly destroys the Britannian submarines in proximity with the change in the pressure.

Paint It Black: Literally, in the case of the Black Knights' knightmares and ships.

Parental Favoritism: Strangely, Charles does (to some extent) regret exiling Lelouch and Nunnally to Japan, acknowledging that out of all his children, the one who relates to the most is not Schneizel, his prized son and clearly chosen successor, but (ironically) Lelouch, undoubtedly the one who hates him (and by extension, Britannia) the most. He questions his actions, wondering if they would've been the most loyal of his children, being the son and daughter of his favored consort, had he not exiled them.

Parental Substitute: Lelouch considers Bismarck to be the closest he ever had to a real father, a sentiment returned by his mentor, who considers Lelouch as Like a Son to Me. Then again, considering that Lelouch's biological father is Charles zi Britannia, Bismarck might as well have been his father in all but name.

Posthumous Character: Genbu Kururugi, who is long dead but appears frequently as a hallucination(?) to Suzaku.

Power Trio: The Tianshounote "Heavenly Beasts". They're to Xingke what the Four Heavenly Swords are to Tohdoh.

Pragmatic Hero: Xingke invoked this when he had thirteen CLA Generals, including Cao, executed for war crimes. He did it not simply for justice, but also to cement his unilateral authority within the CLA and ensure no further atrocities would be carried out by his sub-commanders (as such atrocities would disparage Tianzi's reputation).

Pragmatic Villainy: Calares shows shades of this as Area 22's administrator. Unlike the Eunuchs, he would rather not needlessly antagonize the local Numbers nor kill them off en masse. Not so much because he gives a damn about them, but because they're so demoralized and destitute, and therefore unlikely to resist Britannian authority, that there's no real point in mistreating them further. Likewise, Twenty-Two purges tend to attract CLA reprisal.

Putting on the Reich: The EU uniforms are very Nazi-like (right down to the emphasis on grey), for obvious reasons.

Pyrrhic Victory: The Battle of Xiaopei's conclusion. Though Lelouch succeeds in dissuading Johann and the Britannians from further pursuit of the retreating Chinese, it's still too little too late; the Xiaopei garrison (the CLA's largest and strongest ground force) is whittled down to thirty percent of its original size while the Four Beasts (the Shen Hu and its three siblings) are heavily damaged. Much worse, Johann knows the locations of the other CLA strongholds and is about to proceed in their extermination (from which he plans on forcing the entirety of the CLA and Black Knights into the open for a final Big Badass Battle Sequence) and there is nothing Lelouch can do to prevent it. Overall, as stated in universe, all Lelouch succeeded in doing at Xiaopei was gaining the Black Knights and Chinese a breather before the endgame, and not a very long one.

Racist Grandpa: Rikichi's hypocritical racism is due to his grandfather.

Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Out of all the Eunuchs, Zhao Hao is especially hated by Calares and his staff because he's a pedophile. In fact, he once tried to force himself on a younger Tianzi, only to get his arms cut off by Xingke for the effort.

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lelouch (as Zero or otherwise) has been giving out several of these, most notably to Suzaku (pointedly asking him why he betrayed his best friend to the man who destroyed his people) and to the entire world when he announced the Black Knights' return.

Red China: As opposed to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms knock off it was in R2, Megiddo's depiction of the Chinese Federation is pretty much a copy of the real life PRC. It's since been annexed by Britannia due to the Eunuchs' treachery.

Rousing Speech: Zero's worldwide speech declaring his and the Black Knights' return. It was glorious!

Sanity Slippage: Suzaku. BIG TIME! And it's revealed by the Word Dramas that this slippage has been going on for quite sometime; only after Lelouch was taken by the Black Knights, almost ensuring that he will become Zero once again, did it start to become noticeable.

Luoyang also qualifies. Outside the Vermillion Forbidden Palace, the city is described a lot like real world Pyongyang.

Shown Their Work: The author has provided a lot of information about the mechas with a high level of detail in his wikia.

However, his use of plushies of Godzilla and company in one chapter is wildly inaccurate. Although the alternate timeline of Code Geass is supposedly set in the relatively proper time period for Godzilla and co. to have appeared in at least a few movies from the showa era, the fact that nuclear weaponry apparently does not exist until Nina creates an equivalent version in the form of FLEIJA means that in this world Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah and Anguirus, who all appear as plushies at one point owned by the children of Ohgi and Villetta shouldn't exist either. Why? Simply put: There was no Hydrogen bomb to set events in motion that would inspire the creation of Godzilla and his cohorts in Code Geass. Their appearance in this fic is therefore an anachronism.

Even so, Godzilla and Jet Jaguar figures (or at least close lookalikes) are clearly shown in episode 5 of season one around one of the graves Suzaku and Euphie visit, which means that Kaiju Eiga exist in the CG universe. Also, one should note that of the aforementioned monsters, only Godzilla and possibly Anguirus were created with nuclear weapons in OTL, whereas Mothra was the guardian spirit of Earth, the Rodans (there were originally two) were pterodactyls that went into slumber eons ago only to be awakened by excessive mining, and King Ghidorah was originally an alien monster before being retconned in the Heisei era. Following that, as Code Geass is set in an Alternate Universe (as mentioned), one would believe there are plenty of ways for Kaiju Eiga to come into being and circulation without atomic bombings serving as a backdrop.

State Sec: The Black Knights' Shinobi Corps acts this way, overseeing Internal Affairs within Okinawa and the "regular" Black Knights as well as performing black operations in the outside world to ensure Okinawa remaining secret and forgotten. Needless to say, the other Black Knights have mixed feelings about them.

The Strategist: Besides the usual suspects (Lelouch, Schneizel, Xingke, etc.) there's Johann. Unlike the former group however, Johann's style of tactics are more Boring but Practical; they're nowhere near as spectacular as Lelouch's "miracles" or the like, but damn are they effective. At Xiaopei for example, he starts off by manipulating Calares into attacking the fortress on his own to force Xingke into deploying his defenses, to which he then dismantles with a simple cruise missile attack before deploying his air fleet to assault the base itself. Then when Lelouch shows up and attempts to deploy one of his miracles (a large scale gefjun disturber field, similar to the one he used in Shikine Island eight years ago) to immobilize the Britannians, Johann, upon recognizing the ambush, has his flagship broadcast an overriding signal that triggers the gefjun disturbers prematurely and while the Chinese forces are in the middle of it (during their attempt to lead the Britannian forces in). And finally, when the battle ends in a stalemate, Johann comes up with his next strategy: wiping out random CLA strongholds to force the Black Knights and CLA out in the open and into an endgame scenario, where they will at last be eradicated and Tianzi can be captured.

Even Lelouch has gone up a few levels, as he can hold his own against Suzaku now. All thanks to Bismarck training him.

Alfred also gets a mention, as he was able to fight Guilford and beat him, albeit with a Bigger Stick. I doubt he could have done that in canon.

For a non-knightmare pilot example, Rivalz has developed from the awkward adolescent he was at Ashford Academy into the Ashford Underground's lead spymaster and Milly's second-in-command.

Took a Level in Jerkass: Suzaku. First he betrayed Lelouch, his best friend, to his (Lelouch's) father, the same father who exiled Lelouch and his crippled, blind younger sister and left them to die in a war zone, for a position as one of the Knights of the Round. Then he allows said father/Emperor to suppress Lelouch's memories and rewrite them to make him a loyal soldier of the very empire he despised. Then, after all he's done, he has the gall to reignite their friendship during Lelouch's amnesia and play the part of his best friend for the next eight years. Yeah. Needless to say, when Lelouch regains his memories, he is rightly pissed off at Suzaku the next time they meet. At the same time, you can't really blame Suzaku, since he's been in Sanity Slippage mode since Euphie's death, and perhaps even before, with his guilt over the death of his father.

Two Decades Behind: As in canon, the CLA is highly antiquated in both technology and training; the only real advanced tech they have are the Shen Hu and its three sister units, while Xingke and the Tianshou triplets are the only highly skilled soldiers/pilots. This is emphasized several times as the reason the CLA hasn't made any headway in living up to its name for the last seven years.

Britannia is this when compared to canon. Even though eight years have passed since season one, the only next generation knightmare they've produced is the Vincentnote which Cornelia pilots instead of Rolo. The explanation is that the Ashford Underground has executed several sabotage operations in Britannia's corporate and industrial sectors, which has kept production of the Vincent derivatives back for several years (and may have also forestalled the Gareth and the Lancelot Albion as well).

Ultimate Job Security: Rikichi may qualify because of his racists views, the fact that even his teammates reject him and his skills on a knightmare are pretty much Informed Ability when he's not shooting disabled knightmares. Yet, he's still on Zero Squadron.

In Rikichi's defense, he has only been depicted in a few battles thus far (in which he has done a lot more than shoot disabled knightmares), and the one he got his ass handed to him on was against Gino, who later fought Kallen to a standstill (at least until she activated her Geass). Otherwise, yeah he should have been let go a long time ago, but when you have low manpower reserves...

This is lampshaded by Alfred and a few other Zero Squadron members early on, who question Kallen on why she took Rikichi into the squadron despite the aforementioned (Kidomaru even remarks he could be trouble in the future). For what it's worth, Kallen's explanation was that he did his job and he followed (her) orders.

Undying Loyalty: Kallen to Lelouch, but not in Blind Obedience. So loyal that Lelouch admits to her in private that other than C.C., she is the only person he completely trusts. That is why he christened her as his "Knight of Zero" and why he trusted her to watch his back. It's not only to protect him, but also to stop him should he ever fall from the right path.

What the Hell, Hero?: To say Lelouch was mad at Suzaku after regaining his memories would be an understatement. The ghost(?) of Genbu is also disgusted with his son for his actions as well.

World War II: The story is filled with references (some more obvious than others - North Africa and Pearl Harbor), and the current setting is obviously modeled after it. Several characters also share names with various WWII-era figures.

In the latest chapter, Rikichi has an internal monologue where he details his desire for power, alongside his plans to implement a Holocaust-esque program against all Britannians in Japan and to purge the Black Knights of all Britannians and half-Britannians (aside from Kallen of course). Also, Rikichi is in the process of writing a book called "My Fight". Which, translates to German as Mein Kampf.

The book title has since been retconned to Hitoritabi, or "Solitary Journey", but the theme still remains.

You Can't Fight Fate: George Washington's Geass allowed him to have dreams to predict the future — including Lelouch's rise as Zero. In order to ensure that future, he told Benjamin Franklin to betray them to Britannia and prevent the rise of the United States.

The narrative seems to imply that Lelouch and Suzaku were destined to stand against each other on opposite sides, no matter what happened. And unfortunately for Lelouch, this has so far held true, as Suzaku is too far gone after Euphie's death to even consider salvaging his friendship with his former best friend.

You Should Have Died Instead: Suzaku killed his father in order to protect Lelouch and Nunnally, his first and only friends. Fifteen years later, he bluntly tells Lelouch during their fight that had he known what would've happened in the interim between then and now, he would have let his father do the deed instead of saving them.

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